Terracotta neck-amphora (jar)
Obverse, Theseus and the Minotaur with Ariadne (?)
Reverse, Herakles battles an Amazon
This small neck-amphora shows Theseus slaying the Minotaur, the half-man, half-bull who lived in the Labyrinth at Knossos. According to myth, Theseus, one of the seven young men offered as a sacrifice to the Minotaur, killed the beast and was rescued from the Labyrinth with the help of a string given to him by Ariadne, daughter of King Minos.
As Theseus began to represent many of the qualities Athenians thought important about their city, the subject of Theseus and the Minotaur became a popular scene in Athenian vase painting of the Archaic period.
Reverse, Herakles battles an Amazon
This small neck-amphora shows Theseus slaying the Minotaur, the half-man, half-bull who lived in the Labyrinth at Knossos. According to myth, Theseus, one of the seven young men offered as a sacrifice to the Minotaur, killed the beast and was rescued from the Labyrinth with the help of a string given to him by Ariadne, daughter of King Minos.
As Theseus began to represent many of the qualities Athenians thought important about their city, the subject of Theseus and the Minotaur became a popular scene in Athenian vase painting of the Archaic period.
Artwork Details
- Title: Terracotta neck-amphora (jar)
- Artist: Attributed to the Edinburgh Painter
- Period: Archaic
- Date: ca. 500 BCE
- Culture: Greek, Attic
- Medium: Terracotta; black-figure
- Dimensions: H. 5 3/4 in. (14.6 cm.)
- Classification: Vases
- Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1921
- Object Number: 21.88.92
- Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art
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Edinburgh Painter
ca. 500 BCE
Edinburgh Painter
ca. 500 BCE
Princeton Group
ca. 540–530 BCE
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ca. 530 BCE
Leagros Group
ca. 510 BCE
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